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Illinois Preview CapsuleEds: With BC-BKC--Illinois PreviewBy The Associated Press=IllinoisLast season: 15-19, first losing season since 2008.Nickname: Fighting Illini.Coach: John Groce.Conference: Big Ten.Whos gone: G Kendrick Nunn (transfer to Oakland), G Khalid Lewis.Whos back: F Malcolm Hill. The senior led Illinois through a chaotic season with team-high 18.1 points a game plus 6.6 rebounds; F Leron Black. Talented, physical redshirt sophomore a big contributor two seasons ago, then played just seven games due to injury; C Mike Thorne Jr. averaged 12.9 points, then lost for the season after just eight games due to injury. G Jalen Coleman-Lands. Out with a broken finger for several weeks but as a freshman started 24 games and averaged 10.3 points; C Maverick Morgan, 6-10 senior will look to build on a strong finish that saw him start 11 of the final 12 games.Whos new: G Tracy Abrams. Sixth-year point guard not exactly new but has been out the past two seasons with a pair of injuries. F Kipper Nichols. The 6-6 redshirt freshman was a double-digit scorer in high school but will play first college season after transfer from Tulane. G TeJon Lucas, top recruit from Milwaukee averaged 20.5 points, 7.8 assists a game as a high school senior.The Skinny: Illinois hasnt been to the NCAA Tournament since 2013, Groces first season. That three-year absence is the Illinis longest since missing back-to-back tournaments in the early 1990s. A return to the NCAAs is possible for one of Groces deepest teams, but theyll need to stay healthy after two injury-prone seasons. Custom New York Jets Jersey . Kiriasis and brakeman Franziska Fritz finished two runs in one minute 55.41 seconds -- a mere 0.01 seconds ahead of Meyers and Lolo Jones, who likely bolstered her Olympic hopes by helping give USA-1 a huge push in the second heat. Jamal Adams Jets Jersey . In the lead up - which seemed to begin the moment Mike Geiger blew the whistle in Houston last Thursday night - the Impact rumour mill went into overdrive. The speculation went into meltdown mode, of the golden nugget variety. http://www.jetsofficialsshop.com/sam-darnold-jersey.html . Neymar curled home a free kick from just outside the area to put the 2014 World Cup host ahead in the 44th minute. Three minutes after the break, a simple through pass from Paulinho freed Oscar and the Chelsea star rounded goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong to extend Brazils lead. Sam Darnold Jets Jersey Cheap . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . New York Jets Jersey Sale .B. -- The Baie-Comeau Drakkar took over sole possession of first place atop the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Thursday with their sixth straight win. In 2014, Olga Dolinina worked in public relations and marketing for Hockey Club Donbass in Donetsk, Ukraine-- a time when great uncertainty gripped the country.?In May of that year, armed rebels burned and damaged the teams stadium. Dolinina didnt know if theyd play the next season in a different city -- or at all. Even if the team resumed operations, she wasnt sure shed feel safe moving back to Donetsk. A few weeks after the stadium attack, a shooting occurred just outside the team offices.A colleague turned up the music to drown out the sound of gunfire. Dolinina didnt know if she could safely walk or take a cab to her apartment.I was really scared, Dolinina said. That was the first time when I could see that events Id watched on television were happening so close to me. Despite her fears and the challenges in her own life, one question loomed in Dolininas mind: How could she help children affected by the crisis? Like Dolinina, many families fled from violence-stricken areas in eastern Ukraine to different parts of the country.Thousands of children are suffering, she said. And need psycho-social support and help with adaptation to their host communities. Hockey, she believed, could alleviate stress and foster understanding and resilience.Its the smallest thing that can be done for children, she said. Children shouldnt be witnesses of war. In the fall of 2014, Olga Dolinina arrived in the United States for the Global Sports Mentorship Program. When she returned to Ukraine, Dolinina launched Break The Ice.Since then, more than 1,000 young people in the country have participated in the organizations table and ice hockey programs. Its something like a common language, Dolinina said. Through sports, you feel like one team. You can accept other children and then make friendships, learn life skills and build peace in the community.***Dolinina grew up an only child in Dnipropetrovsk. From an early age, she played outside with boys. The experience taught her firsthand the equalizing and empowering effect athletic endeavors can have for girls.Dolinina earned a masters degree in sports management and worked as a sports journalist and press officer for the Football Federation of Ukraine. She didnt know much about hockey when she joined HC Donbass in 2013, but with her strong background in sports business, she quickly learned.In her year with HC Donbass, she oversaw programs that reached out to the community in general and children in particular. When she first applied for the Global Sports Mentoring Program, she thought she could use what she would learn there to expand her efforts on behalf of the club.The war changed everything. As she contemplated what was next in her own life, Dolinina realized she could harness sports as a tool to alleviate post-traumatic stress disorder and similar problems among displaced children.She was thrilled to be paired with mentor Susan Cohig, senior vice president of business affairs and integrated marketing for the National Hockey League. The match seemed ideal to Cohig, as well.Using sports to empower kids, create opportunities for them to have a safe place to go, Cohig said. All the things that she wanted to accomplish are things we do in the communities were in.Cohig and other program leaders helped Dolinina with the logistics of her program, including gathering data on the impact of PTSD, compiling evidence of the benefits of sports participation for childdren in conflict zones and fine-tuning messaging she could use to raise funds and build partnerships.ddddddddddddhese tactics proved critical because, with the future of HC Donbass uncertain, Dolinina couldnt count on institutional support. In fact, the team suspended operations for the 2014-2015 season, and Dolinina never returned to her job there.At first, the idea of starting a project from scratch seemed daunting.The more I researched and realized the problem could be helped and cured, the more I was inspired by the projects of other members of the program, Dolinina said. I decided, Yes, I can do this myself.***Dolinina realized the expense of ice hockey equipment might delay her efforts. While she worked to secure funding for things such as skates, helmets and pads, she also sought partners and money for less costly table hockey tournaments. With help from organizations such as the International Table Hockey Federation, she held her first two table hockey events in 2015.?Now, Break The Ice and its partners hold regular tournaments in Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kiev.Twelve-year-old Anna Ivantsova, who moved from Donestk to Kiev last year, even qualified for the Ukranian national table hockey team. Break The Ice provided funding for Ivantsova and her mother to travel to Estonia for the European Table Hockey Championship, a journey Dolinina feels exemplifies the opportunities the program offers children, especially girls.As the table hockey program began flourishing, Dolinina learned that a grant she had applied for from the National Hockey League Players Association came through. Now, she has two full sets of ice hockey equipment. A girls team called Ukrainochka and a boys team, Sokol, both of which consist of local and displaced children, regularly put the gear to use.Some players hope to reach professional status. Ukrainochka now participates in the Ukrainian Womens League, Dolinina said. A group of players from both teams traveled to the United States last year, making stops at NHL facilities in Washington, D.C., and New York, where Cohig works.Being in the room with all these young kids, girls and boys, was really special, Cohig said. It was Olgas work paying off, creating this opportunity to take them away from the difficulties they were experiencing to understand and benefit from what sports can do to make a difference in their lives. It was a full-circle moment.The mentoring experience has come full circle for Dolinina too. It changed my life, she said.Two months ago, she began working as an education officer for UNICEF. In the role, she oversees -- among other projects -- soccer and volleyball championships aimed at improving the lives of displaced children throughout Ukraine.As need increases -- about 1.7 million people have been displaced by the conflict, including 300,000 children -- Dolinina says theres no chance shell leave skates and pucks behind. Shell continue to look for ways to expand the impact of Break The Ice. One option: bring it under the auspices of UNICEF and leverage the organizations resources to make the ultimate power play for peace.Cindy Kuzma is a freelance health and fitness writer in Chicago, contributing editor at Runners World magazine and marathon runner. You can read more of her work at www.cindykuzma.com. ' ' '